JOSH BRICK GRAPHICS

VIDEO - BIO - LINKS - TRANSCRIPT

BIO:

I am an experienced graphic designer and photographer. Thank you for visiting my online portfolio. I have been in the graphic design field for eight years professionally. I earned a degree in Media Arts and Design from James Madison University in 2006 with a focus on print journalism. My design focuses on page layout and typography. I aim for clean designs that provide easy readabillity and engagement.

Photography has always been one of my interests and I continue to develop my skills in that field. I have been able to combine my love of music and photographs by building a collection of extensive concert captures. In addition to concert photography, I also have experience in weddings, engagement photos, landscapes and portraits.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Brian: On DC Music Rocks, we're shining a spotlight on the great songs and incredible people behind the DC region's local music scene. Josh Brick is a local DMV area photographer with a focus on live music. He's been active since early 2013 and has been building a reputation since then as a supporter of the DC music scene. He's an experienced graphic designer and photographer. He earned a degree in media arts and design from James Madison University in 2006, with a focus on print journalism. Photography has always been one of his interests and he has been able to combine his love of music and photographs by building a collection of extensive concert captures.

In addition to concert photography, he also has experience with of course weddings, engagement photos, landscapes and portraits. The man is a photographer of all things. He loves the live music though. I've been following his work for several years now. It just, great. I appreciate all those good concert photos, especially from some of the other local bands. A lot of the bands know this guy. It's a treat to actually get to share him with you now, because he's the man behind the scene, that doesn't get the spotlight. I love we're giving you the spotlight now, man. Josh, thanks for being here.

Josh: Thank you. I very much appreciate it and excited to be here.

Brian: Absolutely. Now, talk about how did you get into photography? Where did that start?

Josh: It was always an interest of mine back in high school and in college, but I just never, it was basically just a hobby. I never had real equipment or basically a DSLR camera. As I mentioned before, I was given one as a gift and then it just took off from there. I've been going to shows since I can remember, and then I just thought that well, when I see something that's incredible, I thought I have to document this. I have to show people. If you say to someone, "Hey. I went to a great show last night." They don't really think anything of that. If you share with them a photo and say, "Hey check this out. Look at this." In an instant they can get a much better appreciation for what the event was like.

Brian: That's so true. At what point did you decide that you wanted to do, continue to do more and more with this. A lot of people have passions for photography but for you, you've kind of taken it to another level. There is a social media presence and a website.

Josh: Yeah at first I didn't decide, okay I'm going to be a concert photographer. It just, I got the bug and I just was going to see shows and I just at that point my goal was just to keep shooting more shows and to see as much music as I could. Then, after I don't know six months to a year, it started building and I thought, okay this could actually be something. That was kind of the beginning of it I guess. It was really the love for music first, and then kind of joining the photography with it. It's been great.

Brian: Oh man. Well, I love that you discovered it and I love that you stuck with it. It's if you go back in time and you look back in history at the shots you've done. I can also see the progression of you as a photographer, which has also been amazing to see how it's evolved man.

Josh: Thank you.

Brian: What's your DC region connection? It said James Madison University in the bio. You're from here? How did you get to DC?

Josh: Grew up in Springfield, Virginia.

Brian: Get out of here, yeah? Springfield, alright.

Josh: Robert E. Lee High School and Springfield Mall back in the day. I'm still here.

Brian: Yeah. Fantastic. Where are you now? What part of the city?

Josh: I am right down the street from this studio actually in Arlington, so near Courthouse.

Brian: Fantastic.

Josh: It's a great place to be.

Brian: Absolutely. Now, when you're going all over the city then. Do you tend to concentrate more on Arlington shows? Talk about the different venues and the different places you go.

Josh: Sure. I definitely have an interest in local music and nationally touring acts.

Brian: Sure.

Josh: I just, if something strikes me, if I think a band is good and it's great music, then I'll follow that. Nothing else really comes in to play. It's always about the music first. Over the years, I've just been able to build relationships with local venues. As I've mentioned before, Gypsie Sally's is one of my favorite clubs, since that opened almost four years ago. It's kind of the same time I was starting, is when that club opened.

Brian: Yeah.

Josh: I'm there all the time. Also, I frequent The Hamilton downtown, which is, they have phenomenal acts there. That's just a great room for music, state of the art, stage projection and sound. Other places like Iota just down the street from here. It's a blessing to be able to essentially walk from my apartment over and catch a show whenever I want.

Brian: Right.

Josh: I can't complain about that.

Brian: That's amazing man. It's been a treat. It really looks like you've kind of shot just about every club in the scene pretty much.

Josh: Yeah, mostly. There's still some I need to get.

Brian: Do you have like a bucket list of places you haven't been yet?

Josh: Definitely, you mean in DC?

Brian: Yeah. Venues you haven't shot yet?

Josh: Probably. I mean, I've shot 930 Club a bunch and that is an experience that's kind of different than a smaller club.

Brian: Sounds like a tag line for a venue, bigger, better, louder. Yep, that's a 930 Club t-shirt right there. You heard it here first guys. That's amazing.

Josh: Bigger, better, louder. When you shoot artists there, they really look like rock stars. It just looks like just with the lights and the state and the fog and whatnot, when you take a shot there, it's like okay. I can really make this band look good.

Brian: Wow. That's cool. Alright. What about you on the personal side? You do a lot of photography. When you get away from that, what else is there to Josh?

Josh: Well, there's a lot of photography like you said. You know, I grew up doing graphic design, which is what a part of my profession, which I was able to basically combine those two things because at the end of the day, photos are graphics. I'm able to kind of play with that in terms of marketing and things like that, and pushing out music that I love. Other than that, I mean I'm just essentially a music fan at my core. That's what started it all is just I love music. I love finding other people that love music. If there's that bond, then we can really get along.

Brian: That's cool. Now, you can't get away that easy. Are you a Netflix guy? Are you a gym rat? Are you, everybody seems to have little things. Are you a member of a book club?

Josh: I am not. I am not a member of a book club. There are other things. I mean, I'm obsessed with basketball and tennis as well.

Brian: Really?

Josh: Those are sports I'm dedicated-

Brian: You mean go watch them, go play them?

Josh: Watch them, play them, just everything about those two sports gets me going every time. I played tennis in high school and my dad taught me how to play basketball as a kid. I just keep that going and so that's kind of a good escape from always being behind the lens.

Brian: Yeah. Absolutely.

Josh: I will say that one of my dreams is I love to shoot sports photography as well, whether it be the Washington Wizards for example.

Brian: Oh Wizards? A Wizard photographer.

Josh: I want to have that job.

Brian: Being a Wizards fan is sometimes a thankless thing.

Josh: We've suffered for years.

Brian: Have you been a fan for years I take it?

Josh: Since the Bullet days.

Brian: No way. All the way back?

Josh: All the way back.

Brian: Oh man, we're going back. I love it. Cool. Alright, now, talk about memories you have in the scene. Are there moments that stick out in your photography time that are more memorable than others? What sticks out to you?

Josh: Oh absolutely. For example, the first time that I was actually compensated for shooting[inaudible 00:08:36].

Brian: That would be a success moment.

Josh: That was, I got to give a shout out to Soul Rooots who's a great local guitar player and singer.

Brian: Yeah, yes. We jam to him. Yeah.

Josh: It literally was that first connection. I don't remember how it happened, but he reached out. He was playing the State Theater. It was a pretty big gig. He was opening for Shamika Copeland actually, I think. Anyway, I've had that. I've been friends with him ever since. I mean, I've supported him and his music and he still will call me up, any given day and say "Hey can you come shoot this gig?" That was definitely a memory that kind of boosted it all is that I got paid for work.

Brian: Nice. You got paid for one. What ever memories come to mind?

Josh: Well, one that was pretty recent was over, maybe about a month ago, the final Iota jam.

Brian: Oh.

Josh: Which was-

Brian: For those people who don't know what you mean when you say final Iota jam, what is that mean?

Josh: I guess a little over a year ago, Gordon Sterling and Sean Godfrey, Gordon being [inaudible 00:09:47], Sean has his own studio, Blue Hippo Recordings in Centerville. They decided that they were going to start a jam. It's been done before.

Brian: Right.

Josh: There was something different about the way they did it. They had exactly a one year run at Iota, every single Tuesday, and out of 52 weeks, they only missed one week. They did 51 out of 52 weeks straight basically. The final one occurred last month sometime and it was just a huge blowout. I mean, I think Sean said there was 300 people. It was a Tuesday night.

Brian: A Tuesday night.

Josh: Tuesday night.

Brian: Wow.

Josh: It was packed.

Brian: What a crowd.

Josh: That was definitely an unforgettable night for many people in many different ways. It was emotional. It was fun. Everybody was happy and it was fantastic.

Brian: That's awesome. Now, what about, okay. The one question that I always love to ask in all my interviews is, if you could offer one piece of advice, what would it be?

Josh: Oh that's a great question. I mean, I would say that you need to. The piece of advice that I would give is that to respect your craft and to respect your colleagues. If you do those things, you're probably have a good shot at success, because I mean the craft, whether, I'm a photographer but there's musicians. I can tell when they respect their craft, when they're true.

Brian: What do you mean when you say respect their craft? What do you mean?

Josh: Just basically become completely immersed in what you're doing. For me, I'm not playing instruments. I'm taking a photo. I didn't do it just to do it. I did it because I was drawn to it and it basically chose me at that point. I surrendered to the pull of needing to see live music and document it. When I see certain musicians and I watch them play and I watch them pour their hearts out. I can tell, this is a true musician. I think, it goes for everything. That's respect your craft. Respect your colleagues. I mean, to me, music isn't a competition. That's what gets lost a lot of times because bands want to make it. You want whatever that means. I don't even know. If you support your colleagues, then that's going to help you along the way. There's definitely other photographers that I love and respect and so I try to show that all the time.

Brian: Wow. I appreciate that. That's some profound advice. I like that Josh. Alright. For those folks who want to find out more about you and follow what you're doing, where do they go?

STEPHANIE WILLIAMS

Video - Bio - Photos - Links

Bio

Stephanie Williams is the founder and chief curator of D.C. Music Download, D.C.'s largest outlet for local music news. An Ohio native, Stephanie moved to D.C. in 2009 and started D.C. Music Download in 2012 to spotlight some of the awesome acts she discovered while living in the city. Five years later, D.C. Music Download has grown from a small blog into a full-fledged media company that includes a flourishing editorial, events, and cinematography division.

Interview Transcript

Brian: Stephanie Williams is the founder and chief … Editor in Chief of D.C. Music Download. It’s D.C.’s largest outlet for local music news. She’s an Ohio native and moved here in 2009, and D.C. Music Download came around in 2012 to spotlight some of the incredible acts that she discovered while she was living in the city in the D.C. area.

Five years later, D.C. Music Download has grown from a small little blog into this full-fledged media company that includes a flourishing editorial events and cinematography division, so D.C. Music Download has grown and along with the great scene here. Listeners, with that, it’s my great pleasure that I get to introduce the founder and Editor in Chief of D.C. Music Download, Stephanie Williams. Say hi, Stephanie.

Stephanie: Hey. What’s going on?

Brian: It is such a treat to have you here, and tell us the story, the brief story about D.C. Music Download now. How did it start? How did that happen?

Stephanie: Sure, so it happened a little serendipitously I guess you would say. Long story short, back in college, I was a broadcast journalism major, and I was doing a lot of the same things that I’m doing right now, covering a lot of the local artists and bands that were living in the city and just putting the word out there about some of the awesome acts that I was finding. That came and went, moved to D.C. in 2009 to start an internship at Discovery Channel which grew into a full-time job eventually.

Brian: Wow.

Stephanie: Yeah. That was good, and I was doing the corporate thing for a while, but I felt like there was something missing getting back into that element of getting back into the music scene, going to shows, and just putting myself in that world again, so around I would say like 2011, started going to more concerts, started meeting more people in the scene, started going to more D.C. shows, and discovering some awesome bands from there. Around that time, I was like, “You know what? I feel like this kind of clicks with what I want to do creatively, which is to get back into covering music again.”

The origin of D.C. Music Download’s name is actually because it was originally supposed to be a podcast, only outlet, and we didn’t have any writers like any of the people that we have right now in terms of like editorial, so it was just myself, my recorder, and just doing the thing.

Brian: You blew my mind because I’ve been dying to know. I picked up D.C. Music Download in about 2013 or 2014. It just came on my radar, and I’ve been wondering, “It’s called ‘D.C Music Download.’ Why is there a ‘Download’ because it’s a news or it’s a …?” That’s so fascinating. It was a podcast?

Stephanie: Yeah. It was a podcast, and so I bought the domain thinking, “Okay. All my podcasts are going to be on here, and you can literally just download it from the site,” and so that’s where it came from.

Brian: Yeah. Wow.

Stephanie: Yeah, and then from there, I started finding more people along the way who were interested in contributing more than just the podcast, so then it grew into what it is now which is a news magazine site that … It was just funny now because the podcast is input to the wayside for all the stuff that we do now, so we have a staff of around 30 people who produce all sorts of content.

Amazing, amazing contributions. Everything from show reviews to amazing interviews, long form features, events, and we even have a cinematography staff who creates amazing beautifully shot videos for us. It definitely have grown into something much bigger than I anticipated, but I mean, definitely, it’s been a pretty awesome ride in terms of just seeing it grow and just seeing where everything lies ahead.

Brian: If somebody was curious if they’ve never heard of D.C. Music Download or we were to tell them to check it out, what are they … You were talking about some of the things that you do, but what are the things that D.C. Music Download does really well? What will they find?

Stephanie: I think this is primarily what keeps me going with D.C. Music Download. It’s a pretty big effort, a large endeavor, and I think honestly what keeps me going is the fact of telling stories that we feel are really important, bringing to light issues, topics in the community, people who were doing awesome things here, and just bringing to light those people who may not get the attention or maybe the notoriety that they should get and just put it in the forefront and tell people like, “Hey. I mean, this is something that you should pay attention to,” or, “This is a great band you should know or just a cool project that you might not even realize is happening right in your own backyard that you should check out.” Yeah. I think that’s honestly the most rewarding part of doing this is just being able to spotlight those stories that may not be as easily noticed to the public.

Stephanie: Yeah. For me, I actually just started this as my full-time thing which is pretty exciting.

Brian: Congratulations.

Stephanie: Thanks.

Brian: That’s … so full-time Editor in Chief like this is it.

Stephanie: Yeah. This is it.

Brian: Wow.

Stephanie: It’s been pretty crazy. Honestly, it’s one of those things where it’s like you just do it and see what happens.

Brian: Yeah

Stephanie: Yeah. For a while, I was in the corporate sort of industry, doing that behind the scenes. In a way, I feel like my personal life and D.C.M.D. are very much intertwined.I see this as like my life and just all the stuff that I’m doing right now is stuff that it’s not like I separate the two at all. It’s all combined into …

Brian: Does this mean you pretty much just work seven days a week and it doesn’t feel like work? Is that what it is?

Stephanie: Yeah. Very much so in terms of it not feeling like work.

Brian: Got it.

Stephanie: Yeah. I try to go to shows as much as I can. I’m not getting any younger. I’ll say that. Going out to shows isn’t as easy as it used to be. Going out like multiple shows a night and like all that stuff. I’ve been trying my hardest, but just trying to go as many shows, trying to discover as many new bands and songs as possible, and just …

Brian: Is it just music, or what other hobbies do you have? Tell us more about Stephanie.

Stephanie: Yeah. For me, it’s funny because for me, I actually just … besides music, I like to also … I’m pretty artistic, so I like to do a lot of painting. Also, I love just going out and exploring art, going to …

Brian: Wow. Yeah. Uh-huh (affirmative).

Stephanie: One of my favorite museums actually that I like to go to, and just like meditate, and just be by myself is the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery.It’s like you can go there all day, just walk around and …

Brian: Is that the one with the courtyard in the middle too that …?

Stephanie: Yeah, it’s a great place to go. I love being in the outdoors which like you can’t really do much of that now with …

Brian: Right, since it’s winter and stuff.

Stephanie: Yeah, yeah. I love going out, just being outside, and just being able to just meditate and just be able to relax, and so that’s what I like to do, just going hiking anywhere I can find that’s just a good place to be alone in that sense.

Brian: Absolutely.

Brian: When you think back to D.C. Music Download now, what’s the funniest moment that comes to mind?

Stephanie: The funniest moment that comes to mind. I will say that we have a really awesome staff, and we usually … Every year, we go and do a bar crawl for the holidays, so we usually go …

Brian: Awesome. Okay.

Stephanie: We usually start at Satellite Room, and then we’ll see who’s left at the end of the night. It goes from like 20 people to like three people.Last year, we ended up doing this big pub crawl. Down U Street is where we usually go.It was funny because we went to … I think it was Cloak and Dagger which used to be Patty Boom Boom, and so one of our staff members wanted to … This is like towards the end of the night, by the way, so like people are having fun, whatever, and somebody want to do the rain dance, so they literally took the umbrella, started doing the rain dance in the middle of the club. Some guy and this … Literally, this like big bodyguard came downstairs and literally just like snatched the umbrella like full-hand just snatched it, and he’s like, “Sir, you got to go.” He’s like, “But it’s raining, and I don’t have my camera with me,” and he’s like … and I’m just like, “Dude, let’s just get out of here."

Brian: Let’s just go?

Stephanie: Yeah, and it was so funny because he was like all like stressed out, and he was like running out into the street in the rain. I’m like, “Oh, that’s … Poor, poor guy.”

Brian: Oh my goodness. Wow.

Stephanie: Yeah, he … Yeah, we have a lot of fun together. Besides doing like stuff for D.C.M.D., we always like to hang out behind the scenes. Yeah.

Brian: Absolutely. What about … When you think about biggest success moments now, what’s like the biggest success moment that comes to mind with the project?

Stephanie: For me, I would probably say our anniversary shows at 9:30 Club, so particularly the first one that we did back in 2014. Up until then, we only had done like maybe two small shows at Rock and Roll Hotel. Like we had like no track record with putting on big shows at that capacity, so that was the first big event that we did that we were like, “Okay. Let’s see how far we’ve come and what we can do,” and so we decided to put together this awesome lineup. We had Drop Electric play,The Sea Life, Young Rapids, and The Raised By Wolves at that time, and it was just … We also had Girls Rock D.C. involved, and it was a … It was like definitely one of … probably the highlight for me. There’s been a lot of other concerts have been awesome, but this one particularly stood out because we ended up selling out that venue that night.

Brian: Wow.

Stephanie: Yeah, 1,500 capacity venue that I did not think in my wildest dreams that we’d be able to do, especially at that early in our lifespan.

Stephanie: It was just so cool to see so many people turn out. The thing is a lot of people didn’t know. They’ll come to see one band, but a lot of them stayed for the whole show just like checking out new music and just being supportive of the D.C. music scene that night.

Stephanie: I think that was definitely, definitely a highlight for me that stood out.

Brian: Definitely. I always love to ask, what’s one thing you have in your music collection that might surprise us?

Stephanie: Okay, so my mom is Korean.

Stephanie: She actually exposed me to a lot of K-pop which …

Brian: Oh, yeah? Okay.

Stephanie: Yeah, which is like … Like usually, in that, like I’m not … Like it’s one of those things where I would never have thought.

Brian: I should … so if they don’t know what K-pop is, that’s just Korean pop?

Stephanie: Yeah, it’s Korean pop.

Brian: Okay.

Stephanie: Really like … It’s just like super poppy, very … What I love about it is just … It’s just so catchy, and it’s just like …

Brian: Is this like Gangnam Style that …?

Stephanie: Kind of. Yeah. I listen to a little bit of the girl groups. There’s like Girls’ Generation. There’s F(X). F(X) I love. It’s like this five-girl group that they each have like their own very distinct styles.

Stephanie: They have like a very … not really so much pop, but more so like electronic, dance type of music, and they’re really good about like experimenting and diversifying their sound, so it’s …

Brian: That’s cool.

Stephanie: Yeah, and it’s just crazy because I feel like once I gotten to one band, it just segued into just knowing all these other bands that I like would never have discovered, so it’s …

Brian: That’s awesome.

Stephanie: Yeah, so it’s random

Brian: So K-pop? All right. I dig it.

Stephanie: Yeah, so K-pop.

Brian: The last question I love to ask is, what’s the one piece of advice you would offer?

Stephanie: One piece of advice that I would offer is to not psych yourself out when it comes to thinking that something, especially a goal that you have in mind is too big because I always feel like anything is possible, but it just depends on the time. Like sometimes, you might have a goal, and maybe you weren’t able to reach it at that time because it just wasn’t the right time or you weren’t ready for it yet.

I think with us, there’s just so many instances where I thought that was the case. Like 9:30 Club and us selling it out that year, like that probably wouldn’t have happened prior to it because we just weren’t ready yet, and we just weren’t able to be at that capacity to do it at that time, but I think … Yeah, I think just set what you want, and then just be realistic about how you’re going to get there. You’ll get there. It’s just a matter of when.

Brian: Just figure it out and do it.

Stephanie: Yeah.

Brian: I love that. Great, great stuff. Now, for folks who want to find out more about you and the cool things that are going on and happening with you, where do they go? What are the best sources for them?

Stephanie: All right, so the best one is obviously dcmusicdownload.com. We’re also on Facebook at the same handle, D.C. Music Download. Twitter, same handle. Also, we’re on Instagram as well, same handle.